In the mid-1990s, Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Nobel prize-winning democracy advocate, appealed to the international community to stop trading with, or investing in her military-ruled country until the generals yielded to demands for substantive political change.

Heeding the call, Washington in 1997 first banned US investment in Burma and then, in 2003, barred Burmese imports and imposed financial measures that hampered Burmese citizens' ability to use foreign banks.